Student Athlete of the Week Kaiden Box

Recent University of Northern Colorado football signee Kaiden Box is doing something a little different during his final high school semester.

The Skyline High School quarterback was looking for a sport to play this spring and with neither baseball nor track enticing him, he was convinced by fellow Skyline senior Erik West to join the inaugural Niwot High School varsity boys volleyball team. It didn't take Box long to learn the sport and he soon developed an immense respect for his new endeavor.

"Honestly, it's been a lot more fun than I expected it to be," Box said. "I've never really played organized volleyball in my life, so it's really cool to see how much actually goes into playing volleyball, whereas people who just watch a lot of times don't really know exactly what's going on. There's so many little things going on and it's been a really good experience and been really cool."

Box, a 6-foot-4 middle blocker/opposite hitter with a 76-inch wingspan, leads the Cougars with 47 total blocked shots through April 30 - his next-closest teammate owns just 27. On offense, he has also been a consistent point producer, recording at least five kills in nine of Niwot's 22 games.

While his new sport doesn't have too much in common with football on the surface level, Box admitted that his lower body dexterity has benefited from playing volleyball this spring.

"The footwork, it's not similar, but it's really good practice because of all the transitioning you have to do in volleyball and all the specific footwork that you have to do to make sure you're in the right spot and make sure you're jumping correctly," Box said. "It's also been really good for the mental part because there's so much thinking that has to go into really outsmarting your opponent."

Despite attending Skyline and throwing for over 3,000 yards the past two seasons as the Falcons' starting QB, Box said that he still reps his new Niwot colors during the school day. He added that another positive aspect of playing volleyball has been meeting other athletes from across the St. Vrain Valley School District.

"The first time I walked into Skyline wearing my Niwot volleyball jacket, I got a few questions," Box said. "Once everyone realized, 'Oh wait, he's playing volleyball, that's pretty cool,' there haven't been any disagreements between schools because of it. It's been really nice getting out of my little Skyline area and making new friends with people from Erie and Mead."

Following a difficult past couple of years navigating his college football recruitment, Box will soon be sporting new colors once again at Northern Colorado. He officially signed with the Bears in February as a member of new head coach Ed Lamb's first class.

"My recruitment was definitely a journey," Box said. "My junior season, I broke my collarbone in our first week of practice, so I missed half the season and that definitely hurt my recruiting, only having half of a junior season. Halfway through my senior season, I got an offer from CSU-Pueblo and then after the season ended, they signed a transfer and they pulled out their offer.

"I was talking to a few schools like West Texas where their coaching staff got fired and rehired and all of these connections that I've built up kind of just disappeared, which is frustrating. I had connections to the old UNC staff and it was definitely a relief when I got the offer from UNC, but it was also a bit of a shock because I wasn't expecting it from them. Once I finally signed and everything, so much stress was gone of just trying to figure out what's going to happen."

Box said that he'll be taking a gray shirt to begin his UNC career, which means he'll maintain his freshman year of eligibility while staying in Longmont and training before officially heading up to Greeley in January. He does, however, plan on beginning his sports medicine degree in the fall as a part-time student.